For their collaborative research into how cells communicate, Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1991. Their work has provided a clearer explanation of the cause of diabetes, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy and other neuromuscular disorders. They are best known for developing the patch-clamp technique, a new method for observing the tiny electrical currents produced in ion channels (tube-like passageways from the inside to the outside of a cell).